In keeping with a series of Cold Starts using pictures from the 24 Hours of Lemons race this past weekend, I wanted to show you a particularly fun and well-sorted car, a car that’s inherently interesting, and as a result seems to have spawned, or maybe just re-kindled, a bit of controversy about the whole concept of Lemons racing in general. The car is a 1983 Mitsubishi Starion, and Team Skip-A-Gear have been racing it in Lemons since 2019, but this time they’ve put it in a remarkably convincing Back To The Future DeLorean costume and had a very fun time with it out on the track.
The early, flat-fendered Starion design is actually closer to a DeLorean than most people my realize, especially in profile, and when you remove the Starion’s front end with its hidden headlamps and replace it with the simple, rectilinear face of a DeLorean, with its quad rectangular lamps and simple grille, the resemblance is pretty uncanny. Add to that all the great details the team fabricated to make it time-machine ready, like the time settings control panel on the dash up there, or the fusion reactor and all the associated plumbing and capacitors and whatnot at the rear:
The car looked great, and, sure, BTTF themes have definitely been done before, but they went all in with costumes and everything and were clearly having a blast, so what’s not to like?
Well, the internet being the internet, it seems at least someone was willing to do the work to find something, and they did! Look:
24 hours of Lemons had done more damage to cool old cars than cash for clunkers ever did is my hot take of the day. Stop ruining complete rare cars with this fucking garbage. pic.twitter.com/3s4IksLyUx
— Andrew Auto Off Topic (@RACEDINANGER) April 21, 2023
Oh boy. Okay. This isn’t the first time I’ve heard a sentiment like this, and I think it’s worth addressing, at the very least to tackle the absurd hyperbole. Cash for Clunkers took 677,081 cars off the road. Now, I haven’t done all the math about how many cars have been turned into Lemons racers, but I’m pretty fucking sure it’s many many days drive due south of 677,081 cars.
And, let’s be absolutely clear here, when a shitbox gets turned into a Lemons racer, it’s not dead – it’s a race car! It’s not being crushed into a crêpe to be recycled into coat hangers and speculums, its out there on the track, sucking money from race team members having the time of their lives.
And, sure, a Starion isn’t a common car, but this isn’t the last one left on Earth, and, besides, look how much joy it’s bringing to people! Here’s a clip from the Starion’s first race, where the original owner herself came out to the race to cheer on her old ride:
What’s not to like here? That woman couldn’t be happier or more proud of her old car, the thing that used to ferry her to and from work and to stores and restaurants, is now out there on the track, tearing it up and having a far, far more exciting second go at life than being something that sits in some fussy obsessive’s garage, taken out only a few times a year to some Cars and Coffee meetups, where the owner stink-eyes anyone who leans too close and gets into tedious conversations with unfortunate chumps.
That guy’s tweet represents the worst sort of fun-police gatekeeping, and that’s precisely how you keep more people out of the car-enjoyer community. It’s bullshit, and absolutely counter to the ethos at the Autopian, among many other places not filled with fussy killjoys.
If the dude loves pristine Starions so much, he can just go buy one! They’re not pieces of the True Cross, they still exist. Fussy McSterntrousers up there can buy one, wash it every week, and keep it locked away in a hermetically-sealed garage until the heat death of the universe.
In the meantime, these kooks will be running their Starion at races, having a blast, and making people happy.
This reminds me quite a bit of the debates/pissing contests I got to hear going to car shows about preservation vs. “street rodding” when I was younger. Usually it was initiated by some grumpy old dude bitching about how someone went and “destroyed” an old Model A by turning it into a poorly-copied version of Milner’s ride from American Graffiti.
The fact I can currently find nice examples of stock Model A’s on Craigslist for far less than their restoration costs tells me all was not lost.
The more things change, the more
they stay the samepeople bitch about it.“worst sort of fun-police gatekeeping”
Worse than Jalopnik?
Some folks just have a permanent burr up the ass. Cash for clunkers was an interesting experiment. Just hated to see all those good parts destroyed in the name of stimulating the economy. Shit happens.
While we’re at it, can we also stop with the fiction that Cash For Clunkers is why anything enthusiasts valued disappeared?
People were bringing in ratty Suburbans and Grand Caravans, not rare JDM stuff.
There were some enthusiast cars, but if the owners were willing to give them up for a handful of dollars, they weren’t in any condition to make them worth crying over. At that point, they were a lost cause already.
The whole idea that those programs were crushing super rare and restorable cars started with the Crusher Camaro project and people not realizing that A. that was the exception to the rule as far as what was getting crushed and B. that thing wasn’t financially viable to make what it became if you didn’t have the hookups that a magazine does.
Yeah, the vast majority of the vehicles were stuff like Explorers and rusted-out trucks (oh so many Blazers and Suburbans) but there are a few enthusiast cars that died. Peeking at the list, some people turned in a few Audi S4s, an Aston Martin DB7, a LOT of BMW 750iLs, some Corvette C4s (lol), a pile of Mazda RX-7s, a surprising number of Nissan Z cars, and some French and German oddballs.
I suppose if you’re an enthusiast for some of these, yeah, Cash for Clunkers took some cars out of circulation. I bet some of those cars, like those V12 750iLs, were probably savable but were on third or fourth owners who didn’t have the funds to keep the beasts alive.
What really surprised me most about Cash for Clunkers is just how many late-model cars died. Someone sent a 2004 Toyota Sienna to its death and someone else sent off a 2008 Saab 9-3 to the grave. Someone else traded in a 2007 Suzuki Grand Vitara and supposedly, two trades were 2006 Ford F-150s with Roush parts. Some of those probably still had valid warranties, maybe?
I wonder if those super late model cars were crashed or something.
Or if the entries were a misprint.
Either way, I don’t think it’s really worth crying over a few cars that might have slipped through, especially over a decade later. The Twitter guy is off base.
About those V12 750s, I suppose the only people who understand are those who actually tried to maintain/repair one and had their wallets cry in agony at the prices quoted for both parts & labor
I think the worst sin was taking a lot of still driveable cars out of circulation and borking the used market for a little while. There were a few Actual Classics and enthusiast cars in the mix, but also a lot of like, kinda crappy Buicks and junk that were usually the kind of thing you’d get as a first car or have as “reliable transportation” when it’s all you can afford. Yeah, the gas mileage on those hoopties wasn’t great, but a cheap, understressed gas guzzler is a better choice over a higher car note and/or losing a job because you can’t get there.
Yet another example of how this country loves to screw the poor.
That sounds like an error in reporting. I’m pretty sure the car had to get mileage below a certain threshold and be traded on something with better mileage. A 2008 Saab 9-3 should have gotten mileage too good for the program and certainly worth more than the CFC program would have paid unless it was totaled, but then I’m not sure it would have been eligible for that either.
I’ve also had to remind people that it was limited to cars 25 years or newer, so nothing before 1984 was affected.
Yeah, get over yourself…who cares what he thinks? I would rather this get lemon’d than an actual Delorean (which is awesome- I love BTTF!) It’s not like it’s the long lost Bugatti Type 57 SC Atlantic Coupe
I understand the sentiment but it’s a terrible take. It always seems like the people who complain the loudest about old cars getting “ruined” for one reason or another are rarely ever willing to buy said old cars and preserve them like they want to.
I’m by no means anti-modification but I’ve seen plenty of old cars cut up/modified when I’d rather see that car more preserved but ultimately it’s not my car and it’s not my decision what to do with it. Ultimately I’m just happy seeing people enjoy their cars, even if it’s in a form or style I may not like, rather than see it sent off or a junkyard or left in a field to rot.
I don’t understand a lot of other people’s specific car fandom, whether it be stance, or Bro-dozers, or BMWs. But I do not criticize their love of cars and customization just because its not my cup of tea. I’ll do what I find cool and interesting, and you do you.
This works in other parts of live as well. Just stop hating everything you don’t understand, and people will stop hating you for the things you do they don’t understand.
I am pro more race cars.
Car hoarders that are “going to get to it someday” have ruined way more. I know of first gen celica supra, 2 Willis trucks, a 455 superduty trans am, and a freaking e type! in a 20 mile radius that have gone to the crusher because because of hoarders.
If you think what that guy tweeted cranks your gears … Join ( the Car museum) group on Facebook….and post ANYTHING customized….and a witch hunt of epic proportions full of racist bigotry will ensue.
I’m currently in there posting cool shit….sending purists the the emergency room.
Bad take. Lemons is so niche that the cars it destroys is a rounding error in the grand scheme of things. And most would likely have been junkyard bound in a few years anyway.
Protip: Avoid twitter entirely and the world is greatly improved.
Twitter is all about how you use it. I almost exclusively follow people in Japan with cool cars and the fact that I can’t read 99% of my feed means that I completely miss all of the bad takes and arguments. I’m just there to look at pictures of cool cars so as long as I see that, I’m happy.
I’m inclined to agree. While I don’t use Twitter, I’m careful to ensure that the social media sites that I do use provide me with a good experience. You get to choose who you follow, which groups you join, who sees (and can comment/reply/share) your content. You can hide or even block those who you find offensive. Use those tools! Tailor the experience to your interests! If something sneaks through that makes you angry, don’t engage with it — just keep scrolling until you get to something you like.
That is what instagram is for, buddy.
I know but I’m trying to look at pictures of cool old Japanese cars, most of which weren’t ever sold here and twitter is by far more popular than instagram in Japan so that means the content I’m looking for is mostly on twitter.
But besides that, the fact that I managed to force my twitter feed into being basically just instagram further proves my point. You can make your experience on twitter, or really any social media site more or less whatever you want it to be but it’s up to you to do that.
I started reading this just as the radio DJ went on a tear about learning to ignore the complaints and general grumpiness he gets on the request line. Grumpy Gus has a posse apparently.
the guys who run the series and do the youtube recap have been dunking on this for _years_. “[alert klaxon] Y U RUNE KLASSIC??11??”
your pile of crap 90’s aircooled stock carrera 911 that’s been accumulating rust in a front yard since 2005 is not gonna get restomoded and sold at barrett jackson, you guys. There are thousands more like them, you can find them where they belong, at the junkyard. LeMons racers are doing it a favour
Aircooled 911s at junkyards? Where?
I will be disappointed if there isn’t a “true cross” themed car at the next LeMons event.
Or at least a speculum theme
A Ford Probe maybe?
It’d die at the starting gun and be found running laps 72 hours later.
Not to mention the fact that most cars that converted to Lemons racers are already at the end of their lives and this gives them one last hurrah before the crusher. Not many of them start off their racing career as nice examples. Most of the flailing arm “Y U rune klassik!” crowd doesn’t understand just how crappy some of these cars are under their flashy paint jobs.
I’ve gotten some hate about this with The Homer. When I bought the base E30 car back in 2008 it was just a cheap used car that few people cared about. I legitimately bought it for $400 and sold $300 of parts off it so it started at net $100. Nowadays E30s are coveted and the exact same car would easily sell for $2000+ so some n00bs who don’t know any better have accused me of being way over budget and/or ruining a classic.
I do have to wonder what the wheels on this “Delorean” are from.
Andrew has completely missed the point of Lemons. None of these cars were in good shape to start with. Every single one is in better condition now than when they were acquired. At least they run. They were saved from the crusher, not sent there. There may be a few rarities on track, but none of them are valuable. Remember that rare does not equal valuable. If they were, they wouldn’t be there. These cars are living their best life, and if Andrew ever wants to “restore” one (on his own dime), they’re in better shape now than when they got pulled out of a junkyard or a mud pit in someone’s backyard. He should be thankful.
That panel just below the LED time displays… looks GM to me, perhaps out of an old Lumina?
That’s the OEM “Technica” digital instrument panel option for the Starion. Later years got a truly full digital IP.
The funny bit is that early version still had a mechanical speedometer cable going to the IP that was then converted to a digital read out. On the later revision it changed to an inductive sensor mounted to the transmission.
Edit: Actually everything below the time displays is the OEM gear; just relocated. Except for the red and yellow toggle switches.
That’s literally the first time I’ve encountered Mitsubishi Starion and “making people happy” in the same sentence.
That’s the kind of guy who has a room full of Hot Wheels and/or action figures still in the packaging. If that’s what you want to do with yours, then fine, but don’t yell at me for ripping open the package and playing with mine.
I’m not sure about his collecting habits, but I bet he’s spending his days patrolling his neighborhood as part of the HOA violation enforcement volunteers brigade
Didn’t know Torch had it in him to really drag a guy. Whatever, LeMons is a national treasure, clearly worth every rare shit box it kills or mods into oblivion.
I feel like Stephen Gossin may be the only type of person with enough moral high ground to make that comment – and yet, Stephen seems to set each mended vehicle free without judgement for how it got that way or how it’s used afterwards. I know which dude I’d rather hang out with.
Hot Take: Andrew Auto or whomever @racedinanger, races a Ford Tempo.
I assume he dailies a Ford Tempo he is trying to keep in pristine original shape. That’s why this makes him so mad. He cannot abide someone having fun cutting up a better car than his.
He doesn’t race. He once raced in anger, and he crashed. Hence the handle.
Of all the usernames to make THIS take, this one has to be the most surprising.
I dunno. Anger? Check. Raced? Well, it doesn’t sound like he races now, but he may have soured on it from experience. The past tense suggests this could fit. In? Well, I say he’s out, but I am not the authority here.
Cue Dana Carvey’s Weekend Update Grumpy Old Man character.
https://youtu.be/5x7S2H-g60c
I remember that bit and I LIKED IT!
Why did I click through? Every person who brought up the enjoyment of a car, how these races don’t tend to get pristine cars and cut them up, or that there are pristine versions just caused him to double down. This is a guy who wants to be mad at this car and these races. Rational thought and enjoying things be damned.
So much of Twitter seems to be people looking for something with which to be angry. And, of course, Twitter is just a reflection of society at large — there’s a lot of anger out there. Even in casual conversation, it’s alarming just how often sentences start with “I hate…” or “Y’know what really makes me mad…”
I’ve made a choice to not participate. If a friend or acquaintance starts down a negative route of conversation, I’ll do my best to change the subject — sometimes abruptly.
Some might find it childish or simplistic to avoid negativity like this — life isn’t all positives, after all — but I don’t care. I find it better for my mental health.
Putting myself in (at)RaceDinanger’s shoes, if I were to see something that I disliked in my feed, I wouldn’t post a nasty comment on it; I certainly wouldn’t repost it to amplify it. I’d just keep scrolling by. Don’t let it get to you. There’s a lot of stuff in the world. Some of that stuff will make you mad; a lot of it won’t. For your own well-being, don’t focus on the stuff that makes you mad.
I’m largely with you. I stopped engaging with a lot of it, and I try to direct my anger into things that are worth getting angry over. As you say, it’s all over the place, even just casual conversation.
Fuckin’ A.